On Wednesday, February 26, TASH is participating in another #FixWIA Wednesday. Just weeks ago, TASH members – along with those of APSE and the National Federation of the Blind – combined to generated more than 600 tweets with the hashtag #FixWIA! But there is still work to do to ensure our Senators still do not understand our concerns with WIA.
As you know, we are concerned with two aspects of the Senate’s version of the reauthorization of Workforce Investment Act (WIA). First, Section 511 of Title V brings the payment of subminimum wages to people with disabilities into the Rehabilitation Act for the first time. Second, Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) will be transferred from the Department of Education to the Department of Labor. No research shows that this move will improve services for people with disabilities, and we fear that services will be less effective. If you would like more information about our concerns with WIA, please see our blog post at: https://nfb.org/blog/vonb-blog/fix-wia.
Participating in #FixWIA Wednesday is simple! All you have to do is generate a few tweets expressing your concerns with WIA by tagging your Senators and using the hashtag #FixWIA. You can find your Senators’ handles here: https://govsm.com/w/Senate. Feel free to customize the below tweets with your Senators’ handles.
@SenatorDurbin, will you #FixWIA? Please #Strike511 and keep RSA in the @usedgov. Americans with Disabilities are counting on you.
@SenatorBarb Section 14(c) is discriminatory. Don’t ease it, end it. #Strike511. #fixwia.
@SenJohnsonSD, Quality education and rehabilitation lead to competitive integrated employment. Keep RSA in @usedgov. #fixwia.
@SenJohnBarrasso, Shaking up the #rehabact without data & research could adversely affect millions of PWDs. #fixwia. Keep RSA in @usedgov.
@SenFeinstein, Sec. 511 puts subminimum wages of Sec 14(c) of the FLSA into the #rehabact. Please #fixwia. #Strike511.
@StabenowPress, do you support equal pay for people with disabilities? #FixWIA. #Strike511.
Thank you to everyone who participated in our previous #FixWIA campaigns. I know the more #FixWIA Wednesdays we do, the more tweets we will be able to generate. The more tweets we generate, the more our Senators will become aware of our concerns. Once Senators understand our concerns, change will happen. Let your concerns be heard! Through our efforts, we can ensure that fewer people with disabilities are subjected to detrimental subminimum wage sheltered employment.